The State Library proposed eliminating the annual rent payments libraries such as the one in Ocean City pay to towns that host them. Ocean City's library pays more than $550,000 per year in rent to the city for use of the building shared with the Aquatic and Fitness Center on Simpson Avenue.
The rent goes into the city's general fund. Without it, the city will have to make up the difference in taxation, Mayor Sal Perillo said.
“What they're really doing is penalizing the relationship we've had for years. It was built upon the assumption the library would pay rent,” Perillo said.
The library imbroglio comes on the heels of another dispute the city administration had with the city's library board. Last month, the city enviously eyed the library's growing budget surplus in the hope of cutting local property taxes.
If the library does not have to pay rent, its surplus will only grow faster, Perillo said.
The library plans to use its surplus for an expansion. But it is not clear whether the State Library would permit library money to be used that way.
When it comes to paying rent, the library is the perfect tenant. The city's library board of trustees even supports the city's position.
“Currently, our library is held in high esteem by our citizens, but this may change if an unwarranted tax increase occurs,” the board wrote in a letter to the State Library.
City Council passed a resolution Thursday urging the State Library to drop its rent-free request. Free public libraries may not own property in New Jersey, Council President Jack Thomas said. Strangely, the proposed rules would allow libraries to pay rent to private interests but not public ones such as the city.
“Our library believes that would be unfair,” Council President Jack Thomas said.
State Librarian Norma Blake on Tuesday said she could not comment on the proposal.
Without the rental income, the city might be tempted to evict the library, rearrange city offices and sell land to make up the shortfall. Is that an option?
“That's a real good question,” Thomas said. “I don't know if we would or not, but it's certainly tempting.”
That seems unlikely, Thomas quickly added. The library is ideally located with ample parking. But even the library's board noted this possibility.
“This may, in turn, jeopardize our tenancy at our present location, requiring us to find an alternative site,” the board wrote in its letter to the state.
The mayor, too, sent a letter to the State Library opposing the proposal. He sees the rule change as another attempt by the State Library to discourage towns such as Avalon from seceding from county library systems.
“The general proposition is the state can give and the state can take,” he said.
If he fails to persuade the State Library, he said his next move will be to urge lawmakers to intervene.
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